THE MEANING OF THE WORD LIBERTY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 6, 7 February 1901, Page 20

THE MEANING OF THE WORD LIBERTY.

» Mr. Ruskin was of the opinion that what is called liberty is often the worst sort of slavery, and that obedience is one of the most beautiful things in the world. To be obedient, he says, was one of the first lessons he ever learned ; and he tells us about it in these characteristic words : ' One evening 1 , when I was yet in my nurse's arms, I wanted to touch the tea-urn, whioh was boiling merrily. It was an early taste for bronzes, I suppose, but I was resolute about it. My mother bade me keep my fingers back ; I insisted on putting them forward. My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, bat my mother said : " Let him touch it, nurse." So I touched it, and that was my first lesson in the meaning of the word liberty. It was the first piece of liberty. It was the first piece of liberty I got and the last whioh for some time I asked.'